VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Durban

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Cancun or Durban?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Cancun for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Cancun’s own page.

Choose Durban for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Durban’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Cancun 98, Durban 80: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Durban 60: Durban leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Durban 38: Durban leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Durban 40: Cancun leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Durban 68: Durban leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Durban 38: Cancun leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Durban 60: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Durban 20: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Durban 42: Durban leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Durban 72: Durban leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Durban 40: Durban leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Durban 30: Cancun leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Durban.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Durban
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunDurban

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunDurban
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m22 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunDurban
City population888,797595,061
People per km²-2,634
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Durban somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.